Cool Stuff

1I have a Clone Wars Anakin Jedi Starfighter with the copyright info printed on the underside of the ship. Every other version of the ship I have seen has the info in raised letters as part of the mold. Any idea what I have here? -Gil G.

Interesting. From what I understand this could be one of two things, a piece that was produced prior to the toy getting final approval from LFL, or a piece produced afterwards but before the copyright info was included in the mold. Hard to say at this point where the toy falls on the scale of rarity, but itís definitely a noteworthy variation.

2I have seen several references to a ROTS Deluxe Set of Clone Troopers, but havenít actually seen it. Could you give me some more info on it? -James

The sets in question are the Clone Trooper 3-packs that were included in the Revenge of the Sith Deluxe Figure assortment. Four sets were available, an all white set, and three sets that included one color variation of each trooper. You can find all four sets in our Revenge of the Sith photo archive under Deluxe Figures.

3Can you guys ask Hasbro if there is a way they can separate the titanium series Transformers away from the Star Wars ships? Those damn things take up peg space in my Wal*Marts, and cause the restocking to be sparse and minimal. So I rarely see new products since the mixed inception.

I will definitely ask them about this at Celebration IV, until then we can only hope it comes up in one of their Q&A sessions. It is becoming an obvious problem, especially now since many stores have combined peg space for both lines. I canít tell you how many times Iíll walk into a store to find four pegs worth of Transformers and only a few Star Wars ships available. Even when you can tell new SW Titanium Series vehicles have been put out, only enough has been put out to fill the one or two empty pegs. As poorly as the 3Ē Titanium Series Transformers appear to be doing, we can only hope Hasbro does something to address the situation before it causes more problems for the Star Wars line.

4Hi! Iím from Perķ, I got just one question: where can I Find an Orange Lightsaber? I have all the lightsabers that Hasbro has developed to us but the orange one didnīt make it to Peru. I really wanna complete my collection, is Hasbro not doing more of this anymore? Should I stop my search? Please Mark, this is my most desperate hour, you are my only hope!

May the Force be with us!

-Manuel

Thereís no indication at this point that Hasbro ever plans to re-release their orange bladed Jedi lightsaber from a couple years ago. For now, your best bet to add this version to your collection would be through eBay.

5What is the chance of Hasbro making the 3ĺĒ scale ARC-170 in the blue tiger striped scheme, like the Gunship had? -Eric

I think the chances are actually pretty good, I believe this version is still rolling around in the rumor mill for 2007, what Iíd like to see with it is a ďtiger stripedĒ version of the Clone Pilot like the one included with the Transformers ARC-170. As Hasbro looks for ways to re-release this vehicle, Iím sure the Clone Wars deco stands out as a viable option. Weíll just have to see what turns up later this year.

6Will they fix the wave 8 stands so they will be the correct movie? I will only buy them when they are fixed. ĖDan P.

While I didnít think there was much of a chance that this would be fixed, it does appear now that at least some of the figures might be shipping with corrected stands. We received a report last week, and I was able to find several myself, that the green Clone Sergeant (Attack of the Clones) was now showing up with the correct AOTC stand. At this point I can only guess that others may appear, but as soon as they do weíll be sure to note that fact on the front page.

7I noticed in your last ? Mark that you said the possibility for figures (TV series based) depends basically on the life of the series. Isn't Lucas filming it all at once? Whatever channel gets it, since its 1. Lucas, 2. Star Wars, and 3. all filmed it seems like the entire run is almost a given on TV. Even if it isn't a DVD release will guarantee its success in the world of SW fans. All of those possibilities make me think figures are highly possible. In fact promo packs sent to studio's who may be in line to pick up the series, I would imagine an outline that says stuff like" Built in fan base", "Exclusive Action Figure's to promote series" and the such. Is that far fetched? I am just going on what I have seen on other promo packs.

My other question is about the Dark Horse SW action figures. I picked up the current 3 two figure packs, and I love them. Are there plans for more with that comic book paint style? They are so unique it would be a shame if this was all. -Don

When it comes to TV nothing is a given. If a network sees where theyíre losing audience share they will pull the plug faster than you can blink. Lucas, especially, is very familiar with this as the Young Indy series was pulled with several episodes still in the can. Now that doesnít mean the series will go Ďun-seen,í the chances for a DVD release are extremely good, but how that would reflect upon potential toy development is unknown.

As for the series being shot all at once; thatís news to me. I think I read where Lucas is developing a general story arch and certain episodes for the series, but nothing regarding a shooting schedule has been mentioned; that Iíve seen anyway. As for a built in audience, that could sway some network execs initially, but in actuality the series run on television is more beneficial to the toy line than the toy line is to the network. For success on the small screen, the series will have to stand on its own.

On the Comic 2-Packs, I think one more Marvel based set is planned, the set containing Luke Stormtrooper and R2-D2. After that, Iím pretty sure the rest are all from Dark Horse.

8Any chance that the Jawa Sandcrawler and Y-wing fighter will be made again this year? They were so hard to find I never got those. The large Tusken raider with bantha; is that going to be sold online only or will it be sold at all stores that carry those toys?

From what I understand the Y-Wing has been mentioned (though not confirmed) for this year, probably as an exclusive, but thereís been no word regarding a new release of the Sandcrawler. My guess is we could see the Sandcrawler again, but not for a couple years at least. Then again, we may never see it released again. If this is something you really want in your collection, Iíd try hitting up as many comic shops in you area that you can find, or head over to eBay. As this was distributed as an exclusive through Diamond comics, youíre not going to find these at any of the major retail chains.

I guess the Bantha set is supposed to be a Toys ĎRí Us exclusive. TRU is generally pretty good about getting their exclusive on-line; my guess is youíll have no trouble ordering this set from the TRU website when itís released.

9I've attached a photo of an Anakin figure with its pod racer helmet, from the episode I series. The figure came with the pod racer vehicle. Now, I'm a sort of... semi-completist (?), meaning I like to have every version of the figure carded (without in the never-ending pit of variants... unless they're cool enough to collect). Was this figure ever sold or available as a normal carded figure? (It isn't on the photo archive on rebelscum)

What exactly is keeping Hasbro from taking direct orders from normal/common costumers?Something like a 1-800 number or an e-site. Something like an e-store, but better stocked, and lower priced than SWshop.

It would be a bonus for them: a) They would know what collectors/buyers in general want; b) Hasbro would have a captive market to advertise and sell to; c) They would get extra happy buyers, which would use the service in order to get all the figures that they miss on stores to other buyers, or scalpers.d) What if this 1-800/e-store from Hasbro went global? All those collectors that suffer (like me!) outside the US that have either to pay EXTRA for common figures, or either don't get a chance to buy them because they simply aren't available on the place they live would consider the idea.

Seriously, its frustrating to finally get a chance to visit US stores and find out the pegs are full of the same figure (which you already have), and also get word that the local toy store has the figures you're missing for a higher cost!

I know, I know, you might say that it would be a mess of a S&H business that Hasbro doesn't want to get into, but hey!, other companies have managed to stay alive and prosper with it (Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, even the SW Shop).

I know too, probably Wal Mart, K-Mart, Target, and even e-sites (like Entertainment Earth) might get mad about losing a bit of their SW collectors/buyers...

But consider this:a) Hasbro can keep selling other toy lines besides SW to those companies (God knows they keep pulling action figures out of nowhere regarding other toy lines).b) Not all the buyers/collectors might go for the 1-800/online store idea and keep buying from retailers.c) It's a whole other market out there, and paraphrasing Aquiles, you might tell Hasbro "Take it. It's yours!"

Thanks! I know reading such a long letter might be boring, and if by any chance you find some reasonable idea in the second question, I wouldn't mind passing it along (... I know that Hasbro has probably already considered all this, but who knows what they'll do in the future) -Valdez L

At one time an Anakin Pod Racer figure was ďplannedĒ (mentioned, rumored, whateverÖ) for the basic figure assortment, but got lost in the shuffle between transitioning from the Episode I line to Power of the Jedi. So far, that figure just hasnít come up again, and Iím guessing it probably never will. The farther out we get from Phantom Menace, the less likely this figure becomes. Unless Hasbro saw their way clear to re-releasing Anakinís Podracer, I canít see where it makes a whole lot of sense. Little Anakin figures have never done all that well at retail, the average kid playing with their Star Wars toys is probably more interested in the Clone Wars era Anakin, and collectors shouldnít have all that much trouble finding any one of the little Anakin figures that have already been released. There just doesnít seem to be too much demand for this one.

As the manufacturer, it is much easier and more beneficial to Hasbro to deal in bulk orders to retail, than it is to deal directly with consumers on a onesy/towsy basis. Not that they couldnít sell directly through their website (which they do a little bit of now), but itís just not dealing in the type of volume business they need to prosper. At this point it is still in Hasbroís best interest to focus on their relationship with traditional retail first and foremost; this puts their goods in front of many more potential consumers than they could ever dream of attracting through their web portal. Maybe some day that dynamic will change and Hasbro will redirect their marketing efforts towards the internet, but for right now itís simply not worth it to them, nor is it worth alienating their retail partners over.

So, basically, while thereís nothing preventing them from beefing up their Internet sales presence, thereís really no reason to because it doesnít and couldnít amount to much to them at this time; it would be just a waste of effort.

10The reason why I never bought the Star Wars comics as a kid was because of the horrendous color scheme. How come they have those colors like green for the Tarkin uniform and red eyes for Stormtroopers? I know ink color wasn't rare in the 70's. -Chad

I ran this one by Jay, our resident comic and book guru, and according to him there are really two things to consider when youíre looking at the classic Marvel comic adaptation and series. First, when Marvel started on the adaptation it was relatively early on in the movieís production. At the time, all Marvel had to work with were some McQuarrie production paintings, several stills from the set, and the original shooting script. Itís not like they had the finished movie in front of them to say, oh, thatís what itís supposed to look likeÖ Second, in that particular era a lot of comics were colored in very much the same way the Star Wars comics were. Titles like X-Men, Ghost Rider, and Thor all looked very similar; they just didnít have a movie version to be compared against. All in all itís just the way things were back then. Compared to todayís comics itís easy to see how far the medium has come in the last thirty years.